The Repair Café Movement Continues

The Repair Café movement is growing in popularity worldwide as consumers see the benefits of repairing and repurposing items and reducing the amount sent to landfill.

Friends of the Farm held their 5th Repair Café in Māngere Bridge Library recently and were delighted to see so many people arrive with items for repair. The usual foot traffic in the Library was increased by 200 people.

In total 58 items were repaired, 15 powered items and 43 unpowered items. This amounted to 237kg of waste prevented and 2703 kg of CO2 emissions being prevented- the same amount of emissions as watching 4693 days of TV nonstop.

Local electricians Mark and Joel Swords were the most sought after followed closely by bike repairs done by Luke Haitoua from Duke Cycles. Sewing and darning were popular too with dresses, trousers, curtains, jerseys and baby blankets being mended by Kathrina, Janice and Cheryl. 

Handyman Alan Worman from Māngere East entertained people as he mended chairs, ornaments and knickknacks. Matt Gravestock dealt with IT queries while local librarian Irene Tufuga mended books. The food scraps display was enhanced this time when Māngere Bridge local Alzbeta Bouskova Houghton arrived mid-morning with a large bucket of liquid fertilizer. Alzbeta is the General Manager of the Ecogas Reporoa Organics Processing Facility and came along to show us one of the useful products produced from the food scraps anaerobic digestion process. Auckland’s food scraps are processed and turned into natural gas and this pungent bio-fertiliser concentrate, which is used to fertilize farmland. Plans are underway to provide this fertiliser to community gardens throughout Auckland.

While locals waited for their items to be mended they enjoyed a cuppa and home baked cookie, and chatted about recycling.

Special thanks to local café Phnom Penh for giving each volunteer a hot or cold drink and to Māngere Bridge Library for hosting the Repair Café.

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